Frost & Sullivan released new data on the Australian Online Classifieds market.  I asked Phil Harpur, Senior Research Manager, five questions.

Q. Revenue in the Australian employment classifieds market dropped by 21% in 2009.  Why is the drop so drastic?
A maturing market strongly linked to macro-economic factors.  Of the major online classifieds segments, employment has proved most vulnerable to economic conditions, with the volume of adverts directly linked to employers’ willingness to hire staff. Employment was by far the worst hit segment by the GFC.  Read more...

A year ago we briefly explored the uptake of social media to source talent. Overall, we found, organisations were slow to adopt social media; only a minority (35%) used it in some form or another to recruit new staff.  Read more...

Five employers – Lincoln Benbow from Halcyon Knights, Tim Brady from Credo, Leigh Jasper from Aconex, David Markus from Combo, and Paul Rae from Bourke Group – discussed their approach to attracting and retaining staff (Via BRW Fast Club)

(PS: Video will open in new window)

I attended Atlassian’s Open House party last night. 300 plus people turned up.

Few observations:
A strong employment brand alone does not guarantee a steady flow of talent. Organisations who attract talent does so because they work hard at it.  Universally recognised brands are often the ones rolling up their sleeves.  Read more...

Australian Computer Society’s (ACS) latest report paints a favourable employment picture for IT professionals.  By and large, IT professionals are faring well with  24.7% of respondents experiencing some form of unemployment at some stage in the last five years – down from 29% of respondents in 2007.  Read more...